Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Hanson of Flint Excerpts

Monday 10th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

11. What progress his Department has made on resolving the dispute over firefighters’ pensions.

[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

14. When he next plans to meet firefighters to discuss their pensions.

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

18. What progress his Department has made on resolving the dispute over firefighters’ pensions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Penny Mordaunt]

The irony of the hon. Gentleman’s question might be lost on him, but I am sure that it will not be lost on many Members of the House. There have been several changes to the scheme since it was originally published, including improvements on the 2006 scheme—introduced by Labour—which introduced retirement age at 60, disproportionately penalised firefighters who want to retire early and offered no protections on fitness. We have addressed those issues in the new scheme.

[Mr Hanson]

Will the Minister explain to me why my constituents who work for Welsh local authority fire services have reached agreement on a fitness test and a pension plan, through a negotiated settlement and at no extra cost to the taxpayer, yet my constituents who work for the Merseyside or Cheshire fire services, on the English side of the border, are faced with a strike because of an intransigent Minister?

[Penny Mordaunt]

What the right hon. Gentleman says is not correct; Wales and Northern Ireland have made no announcements on fitness. We are currently consulting on doing what Scotland has done through a regulation, which would offer firefighters those protections —we have to do that through a statutory instrument because we do not have one single fire authority for England. In addition, we are the only nation that has set up a working group on fitness to ensure good practice among all our fire authorities.